Chaos Acceleration
by Sherry Aensland
Summary: A genius at combat will learn that there is more to this world than just fighting.


Foreword:

Before anything else, it has been a decade since the pen has last entered the recesses of my thoughts. I, Sherry Aensland, can only hope that the quality of the tale be able to satiate you; beseeching that you may convey your ideas and criticisms to me directly. Regardless of how harsh or shallow, know that I take pleasure in hearing the minds of those who do not fear to speak it. So forth, I am thankful to you, dear readers, for taking the time to read this tale of mine.

Just to inform... I do not claim ownership to known figures in this tale. They will forever remain to their rightful masters, as they should. Also, I do not have the light novel collection at hand, and the information I use is only from what I is within my grasp. If I am mistaken with some details, I beg your pardon. Be forewarned, as well, that some scenes might be unsuitable for young ones as I tend to be thorough in details as much as I could.

Prologue

Opening his eyes, he rises up from the bed he and takes in the room surroundings. Questioning his judgement, he touches the walls and feels the grains of the wall. His question has been answered; it is made out of wood. Relieved that his judgement isn't impaired, his thoughts tugged at a certain detail... Why the heck does the room look like a hollowed-out tree?

Misgivings aside, he slips off the bed and steps out of the room. Taking a left turn at the exit, he notices some girls around his age chatting by the corner with windows further ahead. Faces become recognisable the closer he walked towards the group. The heavy gowns they are wearing seemed out of era, however. Continuing his walk, he somehow recognizes a few more people as students in the local school he is currently attending. Somewhat unsettling, as well, was that they were really tall for some reason.

"This is getting really weird. Where the heck am I?"

Peering inside a room with stairs leading below, he notices that unusual devices are attached to the walls. With nothing better to do, he takes the steps down and walks towards a corner. Noticing the mirror, he looks into the mirror and slips in surprise. The image reflected on the mirror isn't one he was expecting, so he started looking over himself. Surprise turns to shock when he realizes that he really was a tiger cub – stripes, tail and paws.

"That's why those girls were giving me weird looks. A baby tiger walking on two legs would really..."

He then hears a sound like the school bell signalling the end of the break. Startled, he opens his eyes and sees the white ceiling above. Turning his head, he sees the nurse noticing that he was already awake.

"So how was your first time in virtual reality, Saotome-san?"

"It was... weird. The place looked like a tree emptied of its insides. The people were loads taller than me too. And I looked like a small tiger."

"Don't worry too much about it. It's actually unusual someone your age hasn't been on the VR before."

"Well... Pops never really followed any of this stuff, but Mom always sent me this neck-ring. I always wondered how she kept sending me one just the right size."

Wanting his son to become the world's best martial artist, Genma begged Nodoka to let him go on a journey around the world to train to become a man amongst men. Conceding to the idea, she allowed Genma to go on the journey with little Ranma. Before going however, she made Ranma promise to never forget to wear the neck piece. Never understanding what it was for, he still promised his mom to keep her happy. It was only a neck ring of sorts, and it was never uncomfortable to wear. All the while during the journey, Nodoka was able to keep tabs on her son. Ranma, however, never learned how to use it or what it was ever for.

Attending the local junior high recently to get some education as Genma says, Ranma notices that every student there had the same neck-ring he was wearing. Confused and curious, he confronts the homeroom teacher after class to know what the ring was for. Very much out of the norm, the teacher began giving him lessons from the basics of its operation to how to connect to the Global Network. Through the frequent exchange of e-mail to his mom in the days following, Ranma learns of virtual reality. Nodoka has prodded him to step into the VR under the supervision of the school clinic, just to be safe.

Returning to the clinic after classes, Ranma steps back into the room with exotic design. This time, however, someone is already there ahead of him. Taking the chance to learn more about the unusual reality, he realizes that the enclosed area is actually for playing a game almost similar to squash, except with a racket of sorts. Deciding to try it out, concentration on the game itself removed a bit of the surrealness of the VR. He didn't notice the scores of each round that he played, but the score board for this particular junction was rewritten completely.

Returning back to reality, the pig-tailed teen feels somewhat satisfied at the progress he is making in learning about the unusual device. On his way back to the camp they were staying in, he sees a local game arcade and decides to check it out. At the centre of the shop was a unusual VR game. It requires that the player enter into a sort of capsule and plug-in through the neck-ring. With time to kill and just enough money for one game, Ranma decides to go for broke and try it out. Upon entering the game, he realizes that it was a sort of robot fighter game. Each sleek unit has its pros and cons in terms of speed, agility, durability, and power. A variety of weapons was also laid out for the player to choose – ranging from knives, swords, staves, and even guns.

Selecting a character with above average agility and speed and moderate power, Ranma tinted it in his favourite color of red and black shades. He had to pick a weapon, however. From the assorted weapons, selecting a steel katana was the nearest thing he could think of using, even compared to the wide variations of swords, steel or energy-based. Ever since a few of the e-mails Nodoka had sent him over the past few days included training manuals of basic and middle-tier movements, he has been itching to find a way to try them out.

Entering the game, he notices that the fight doesn't have a a time counter of sorts anywhere in his view. The match itself was going to be held in a coliseum. His opponent for the match was a complete red unit, slightly shorter than him, equipped with a pair of pistols. Under his name and life bar, a "Novice" marker was placed, indicating his rank as a beginner in the game. His opponent, on the other hand, holds a "Master" rank in the game.

'No wonder the capsule was blank. People were probably too scared to enter into a fight against this one. What a buncha wimps...'

Taking a deep breath, he walked over to the centre of the ring to greet his opponent. Shivering in excitement, Ranma has learned from a young age that the battle starts even before you meet your opponent. Preparing the mindset for any battle is always important. The opponent, seeing the non-aggression conveyed by the relaxed pace, walked over to greet him. Stopping a roughly twenty paces away, they eyed one another in anticipation for any sudden movements.

"For a noob, you're either really brave or really stupid, you know that, for challenging me, the champion?" A higher-pitched voice could be heard indicating that his opponent is a girl.

"Well... A rank's only a rank; a title's only a title. Even as a complete beginner, I could still beat you the tar out of ya easy."

"Ha... Big words, motor-mouth. Let's see you back 'em up. What kind of handicap do you need? How about I give you a few minutes to try landing a hit or two on me before I slaughter you?"

"A handicap? Psh.. You're probably the one who needs it."

"Let's see what you got, boy."

And the match begins.

Just as the word-war ended, twin beams of laser fired off first suddenly from the champion. Side stepping to the left, the beams blazed past mere millimetres from Ranma's right arm.

'Fast' both of them thought in unison for different reasons.

Employing basic kenjutsu, the challenger draws out the katana and glides forward, both hands holding the katana in front of him. The weight of the weapon feels foreign, but not enough to throw him off-balance. The uncomfortable feeling is that the speed and agility of the unit just wasn't fast enough for him, but a he felt that a faster unit would have just been a joke in terms of power. Closing the gap, his opponent shoots off two separate rounds which misses significantly, but does serve as a distraction. The champion within reach, he executes a horizontal slash. Expecting the obvious motion, she leaps just over it and retaliates with a mid-air spin kick. He ducks below the anticipated counter and rolls to the right, out of the way of the follow-up gun blast to the ground. Not allowing himself to lose momentum, he does a simple one-handed rising slash and a two-handed vertical slash; both moves propelling him forward by three steps.

'At least I'm doing the moves right by the book. The motions are really rough though.'

To his expectations though, the champion backflips and avoids the slashes. Breaking the exchange, the fighters relaxed a bit and do a bit of observation. Nicks and cuts appear around their bodies, but the challenger seems a bit worse for wear. A third of Ranma's life gauge is already gone, while the champion's is only around an eighth diminished.

'Man... For near hits, those guns deal too much damage. Guess that shows the difference in rank. What a pain...'

Outside the capsules, however, people were gathering around the VR monitor to see who the soul was brave enough to challenge the past year's champion. Expecting a massacre, the light trade of attacks came as a surprise that the challenger hasn't died in the first 15 seconds. What was more of significance was that the challenger was a rank "Novice" with a 0-0-0 record.

"Hmm... For a punk, you've got skills. Doubt it'd be enough to beat me though."

"I could say the same thing about you, little girl. We'll see about that. Weak little girls shouldn't be playing guns. If this is the best a "Master" could offer for a fight, this game has some really low standards."

A vein twitching at that slight, the completely-red unit retaliates. "Guess it's time for the kitty gloves to come off. You'll regret making that comment, boy."

A hail of missiles came rushing towards the red-and-black unit, but the challenger cleanly evades it and comes rushing towards the champion. The overlay of multiple beams coming straight at him comes as a surprise though. Not being able to evade in time, a few beams hit him, with one directly burning into his shoulder, another into the centre of his chest. Shaking off the effects of the hits, he tucks and rolls to the right just as dozens of missiles impact on spot he was to land. Although evaded, the explosion burns and bruises his back; veering him off course and landing near the wall. A quick dive-kick connects to his midsection, burrowing him into the wall, followed up with another barrage of beams. Ranma could only raise his arms to try blocking as much hits as possible.

A brief respite settles the dust-storm following the burst of attacks. The black-and-red unit slowly climbs out of the wall it was buried into. He notices his waning life gauge beginning to glow. Upon inspection, all his limbs still seem to be able to move though. The burn on his shoulder isn't hurting at all; the other hit on his head not affecting his vision any worse.

'I guess I should chalk it up to the game. This is how people in this game like fighting? Tch... It doesn't even compare to how a real fight. I'll just end it here, I guess. This isn't what I'm looking for.'

"So, boy. Still think it's as simple?"

The shouting stirs him from his thoughts. Looking over to the champion, he could sense the smirk behind the faceless avatar. Finishing his full-body inspection on himself, he pulls out the scabbard and sheathes the katana. He walks toward the enemy, his steps still overflowing with confidence. In one swift motion, he stabs the katana's scabbard into the ground's stone slab.

"Let's end this. I'm already getting tired, little girl."

"Ha.. You speak like your winning. Get off your high horse and think. You even dropped your weapon behind."

"I actually am. With still this much life left, I know I can beat you easily."

Feeling lighter after removing the weapon and sheath, he raises an arm and points to his target with an air of confidence.

"Let me show you why Ranma Saotome never loses."

"Haha.. If you do, I'll be sure to greet you myself. Come, boy."

Presuming to end the fight, he rushes the enemy to close the distance. He dodges the missiles behind him and dives through the middle of the following overlay of beams ahead.

"Way too predictable, little girl. That the best you got?"

His gauge decreasing a bit because of the nicks caused by the laser, he closes the gap between them to a striking distance. Frustration shows in the movements of the opponent. Deciding to move away from close combat, she tries a sharp side-kick to knock him back. In response, Ranma just avoids it and performs a dragon-tail sweep. The air-stomp following misses as she does a neat tuck-and-roll. Not giving up the advantage, he sticks close to her and steps in front of her as she gets up. Knee to gut, an uppercut, a left-right punch, left hook to the unprotected right flank, right upper – the torrent of hits hitting critical areas dealing the maximum amount of damage. With a double-fisted hammer to the base of the skull, the red unit crashes to floor. Not relenting, a follow-up elbow to the neck connects, and Ranma glances at the opponents remaining life gauge.

'Still at half? Oh well... More fun for me, I suppose. But I really should end this now. Pops is gonna kill me if I stay out too long.'

Twisting to avoid a beam, he grabs the hand and forces her to let the pistol go. Dragging the body to lie down stomach first on the floor again, he traps the arm between his arms and body and twists, breaking the elbow. This depletes the gauge by a large amount, and with only a quarter of life remaining, she takes a gamble and side-rolls away with a laser round as cover. Flexing the supposedly broken joint, it doesn't come as a surprise to the champion and the challenger how unrealistic this game could get.

Ranma releases a sigh in exasperation. "Oh well... So much for that bright idea." With only a quarter of the bar left, the champion's life gauge also begins to glow. 'This might get ugly.'

"What? You were hoping to finish this before I could use the increased parameters? Fat chance, boy. You've passed beyond my expectations though, I'll give you that. But this farce of a show ends now."

Unnoticed by the challenger, the champion had been charging up her armaments since the reprieve. A high-pitched hum informs her that everything was ready. With roughly twenty points of left in the gauge, his eyes begin to glance left and right to form a battle plan immediately. The last attack he landed has proven that even with the difference in rank and status, solid critical hits could still deal large amounts of damage. All he needs is to find a way to land a resounding hit, and a grapple hold isn't going to work twice in a row. Spotting the katana hilt on the floor near her, he instantly decided to try the move he saw in an anime show once.

The rain of artillery beginning its descent, the red-and-black unit blurred to the right, then made a mad dash to the left, hoping to make it in time before the opponent figures out the plan. The shrapnel explosion pilfering his remaining scrap of life, he reaches out for the weapon and draws the blade to his salvation against his opponent's chest with his right hand, left leg in front.

From the outside, a buzzer could be heard announcing that winner has been decided. Capsules opening, the players disconnect their respective devices. With an irritated look on Ranma's face, he jumps out of the game unit and heads toward the exit.

"Broken limbs they don't take into consideration, but losing because of self-infliction is just plain stupid!"

The slash had connected perfectly - a deep slash across the right hip to the left shoulder of the champion as proof. The force exerted by the attack was enough for the game system to consider it a critical hit. After a few seconds of air-time up, the champion's unit crashes to the ground. A system buzzer signals the end of the match. After the match, both players had no remaining life left in their respective gauges. The champion was still declared the winner because of the precedence of loss of life – that being Ranma dying first. As evidence, a video replay of the deciding move was shown, with a close-up on the deep self-wounding on the upper left thigh of the challenger.

"Hey, you."

Turning around, he finally makes eye-contact with his opponent in the physical world. A red-headed young girl, hair in twin pony-tails. The girl was wearing a white t-shirt with a picture of an ice cream cone and sheared jeans. Looking behind him, she motions to the fast-food chain across the street.

"Let's talk there."

Looking at the wall clock by the counter, he sees he still had enough time. "Sure thing. Your treat though... I don't got nothing left."

"Ha... Dream on."

Entering the shop, they made their way to the back to not be disturbed. After ordering, they decided to introduce themselves.

"The name's Kozuki Yuniko. Call me Niko."

"Saotome Ranma. Ranma's fine."

"Nice match by the way. I was beginning to wonder when a good match like that would come by. You can't imagine the number of pansies this place has got. Seriously though, how'd you hack the game into letting you show that you were a "Novice" rank?"

"What the heck d'ya mean?"

"Oh come off it. You seriously can't make me believe that that was your first time playing since you're so good."

"That was. I only learned about VR this morning."

"What kinda fool do you take me for?"

"Well... You were kinda stupid back there underestimating me, even though I warned ya."

"Psh... That's besides the point. The way you fought was too good to even be a beginner. You can't find a match as good as that, even during the championships match last year. Plus the fact that you dish out so much damage to all the critical areas was borderline crazy, more so since you were only using your hands and legs."

"What's so new about that? It's only natural since I was attacking the vulnerable spots, particularly the joints. Even bigger opponents would be vulnerable at the joints. It's just your fault for not knowing how to fight against a master of hand-to-hand combat."

"What the heck are you talking about? No one would have thought of fighting hand-to-hand."

"Then that's their problem. They don't think enough about the distinct advantages of hand-to-hand."

"Aside from that, how the heck were you dealing that much damage."

"Like I told you... Vulnerabilities like the joints, liver, neck, and chin are all critical spots; attacking those said points would have definitely hurt you more than just punching or kicking you in the face. Wasn't that demonstration back there enough? It's just a matter of amount of force and focus hit against the spots, that's all. But man... That game seriously sucked."

"What are you talking about? That was considered the best VR game in the last year."

"Still no big woof... It still can't compare to how a real fight is. If that was a real fight back there, you wouldn't have been able to retaliate any after I broke your arm. Since I doubt you've ever had someone break your arm before, the first time would have rattled you too much to let you further make calm actions. Plus the other blows I landed would have caused you to be nauseous. Probably a bit of vision impairment too."

Shock was written all over her face. She knew the hits that landed were bad. The burst of damage she received during the match itself proved those hits to be powerful enough. With the difference in rank and parameters, she shouldn't have received that much, yet it did. Nonetheless, she never imagined that those attacks were that critical.

"And how the heck do you know that?"

"Because I used those same moves once against a group back in the old school I attended before. Damn morons pissed me off for bullying those children."

"That doesn't prove anything. If what you say is true, then how the heck did you learn to play as good as you are and not know about VR?"

"Because I'm training to be the next master of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu."

"What?"

"Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu is the school of martial arts that I am learning. I guess you wouldn't know much about martial arts."

"Whaddya mean by that? I know Karate, Kendo, and Judo, if that's what you mean."

"Psh... Lame. I mastered those by the age of five. The only one I couldn't beat was the old man at the temple."

"What? You were chickening out?"

"No... I actually wondered why the old man was teaching me himself when all the other kids were being taught by the other old guys. Didn't wonder much after I beat those other oldies. Man, they were terrible, and they were the ones teaching the kids. Kinda felt sorry for those other kids being taught the wrong way."

"Going back, what the heck is "Musa"-whatchamacallit?"

"It's the family martial art I practice and am inheriting. In a nutshell, it encompasses all the different martial arts around the world to compensate for the weaknesses of the other arts, forming the one Art."

Still not understanding though, an inspired idea came to Niko and blurted it out immediately. "How about I show you a game much better than that?"

"Oh...? I thought that that last one was supposedly the best one out there. What game would that be?"

"I'll show ya. It's not a very popular game, since it has very strict requirements and rules. But first, you gotta attach this cable to your Neuro Linker."

"Neu-ro whaa?"

"Neuro Linker. Don't tell me you don't even know what the thing around your neck is called."

"Of course I dunno. I never asked or heard what it could do 'til recently, remember?"

She then felt dumbstruck. 'Is he serious? Or is he simply a genius? I can't believe I lost to that match against some backwater hill-billy.' "Here, just mirror what I do."

Connecting the cable to the left slot on her Linker, she sees Ranma copying the motion.

'Hey! Do you hear me?'

Ranma nearly falls off his chair in shock. "What the... How'd you do that?"

'Surprised? Just speak through your thoughts.'

'Like this?'

'Yeah, and keep it down. No need to shout. I'm going to send you a program called "Brain Burst".'

After clicking through folders visible only by herself, Niko drags a folder in mid-air and throws the folder to Ranma through the connecting cable link. A system message pops out, informing Ranma that a folder named "Brain Burst" was being sent over and confirming if the user would accept or not. 'Just click the "OK" button to start downloading. Install it afterwards. It'll either finish or fail on its own.'

'Fine fine...' Downloading complete, he clicks a button saying "Install" and completes the process. 'So, what now?'

'Now? We disconnect this wire and disconnect from the Global Network. You've been taught how to do it, right?'

'I think so. Lemme try to recall.'

Sighing in exasperation, Niko tilts her neck to the side and points to a button near the tip of the Linker. 'It's over here. Just click that, and if doesn't glow anymore, that means it's off. You'll see a pop-up message confirming that your network connection is off.'

Pressing the button, the said message popped-out instantly. 'What do I do next?'

'Well... Just get a good night's sleep, and we'll see if it works tomorrow.'

'Wait... Whaddya mean tomorrow?'

'Like I said, tomorrow. The installation isn't totally finished yet; the program takes overnight to complete everything. Let's meet up here again tomorrow. Oh yeah, and don't connect to the Global Network 'til you meet up with me here tomorrow.' Disconnecting the cord, they part ways, and Ranma heads back to the camp he and his father setup.

As the moon rises, he and his father finish their evening routine. Later, while lying down staring to the moon and stars, he begins to think on the day's events and wonder whatever he had gotten himself into that afternoon.

'Man, I wonder what she meant by "finishing overnight". Well... Let's just see, I suppose.'

Turning to his side, he closes his eyes and goes to sleep.

Author's Notes:

I hope I had kept you entertained. Please send your reviews to my mail directly - sherry_aensland .

Yes, yes, my dears. If any of you are wondering, the answer is a clear 'yes'. The kenjutsu style I will be using for this tale will include bits of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu from Rurouni Kenshin. Others might follow, but I will still need time to brush through available materials.

Ah... But I have little time left. Tata, my lovelies.


End file.
